Branch-Wayne County MI Archives Obituaries.....Randall, Joanna Woodburn (Dwinell) December 13, 1887 ************************************************ Copyright. All rights reserved. http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://www.usgwarchives.net/mi/mifiles.htm ************************************************ File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by: Marta Norton mnortonco@gmail.com August 29, 2011, 3:13 am Michigan Pioneer and Historical Society Michigan Pioneer and Historical Society Including Reports of Officers and Papers Read At the Annual Meeting of 1888 VOL. XIII Second Edition Lansing, Michigan Winkoop Hallenbeck Crawrod C., State Printers 1908 Memorial Report: Pages 120-123 BRANCH COUNTY By C. D. Randall A Pioneer Sketch - Caldwater Republican, Dec. 27, 1887 On Tuesday, Dec. 13, 1887, passed peacefully away Mrs. Joanna Woodbrun Randall, at the residence of her son, Hon. C. D. Randall of this city. She was the widow of Dr. Alva Randall, who died in Bronson, Dec. 12, 1851, or 36 years prior to the death of his wife. The funeral was held at the residence of her son on Thursday, Dec. 15, the Rev. Henry Hughes conducting the reading and prayer service, with singing by the Episcopal choir, while Rev. W. A. Hunsberger, of the Methodist Church, made the remarks. The remains were then taken to the train and transported to Bronson, where the final burial was held, conducted by the pastor of the Methodist Church, and she was laid beside the remains of her husband and two children. This is only preliminary to a sketch of one of the earliest and most highly respected pioneers of Branch county. that early life in the beginnings, which, in a sense, we have come to look upon as old-fashioned, is fast passing away, and with it go many of the recollections which, to the pioneer, are so blessed and joyous. Ere the memories of this past, from which we are so rapidly drifting away, shall have been entirely obliterated it is well that we record on the printed page something of the impression that it leaves in the life and character of the section in which we live. For this purpose, and just as the County Pioneer Society is about to gather in its annual meeting, we have thought to portray briefly the life of the time as brought out in the pioneer home of Mrs. Randall. A word as to her childhood. She was the daughter of Benjamin Dwinell, whose ancestors left France on the revocation of the edict of Nantes, and settled in Topsfield, Mass., at a very early day. Thus her people, like all of New England birth, leave the old world where men were oppressed for their religious convictions, and come hither to enjoy freedom of conscience. Miss Dwinell was born in Grafton, Vt., December 23, 1802, and was, therefore, nearly 85 years of age when she passed away, showing of from what a strong and robust family she must have sprung. During this early life she was brought up in the service and faith of the New England Congregational Church at Grafton and took part in its Sabbath exercises by singing in the choir. She was educated in the New England schools and the Ladies' Academy at Keene, N.H., and consequently she was well fitted for a place in the society of culture and refinement - a fitness which she brought as a rich possession to the west in order to mold the character of her children and the life of society about her. This is one of the satisfactions growing out of a good education, that it furnishes opportunities to enjoy life through books and reflection where there is little society and people are forced to live largely within themselves. On July 4, 1827, Miss Dwinell wsa married to Dr. Alva Randall, a young and growing physician of Danby, Vt. Thither she went and there their oldest child, Sophia, was born and died. Eight year after, in 1835, they came west. They left Conquest October 7 of that year and were about six days on the road from Conquest to Buffalo in a canal boat. Thence they shipped their goods to Chicago, expecting to go to Illinois. Afterwards they learned that land was not in market in that State and so concluded to stop in Michigan. They took the steamer Michigan at Buffalo for Detroit and were on the lake seven days, with head winds all the way. Once the boat was stuck on a sand bar in Sandusky harbor which detained then half a day. Detroit was then a small town, and where now are long lines of wharves and high buildings were the open undulating banks of the Detroit river. From Detroit they engaged passage in a lumber wagon and were five days on the road from Detroit to Bronson, then called Prairie River township. Most of the taverns on the way were built of logs and two nights they slept over the bar room with only a loose board floor to keep out the perfume of whisky and tobacco. At Coldwater they took supper at the Morse tavern, located where the Oriental or Phoenix house now stands and spent the night at the Taylor Tavern in Batavia township, sleeping in the ball room with eight more beds full and no curtains. The next morning they drove into Bronson, stopping at the Rose tavern. At once they bought a log house about 10x11 with a lean-to of the same size in which they lived. Michigan was then a territory, and save a few sparse settlements, mostly in the two tiers of counties on the south, the country was an unbroken wilderness. The national government had constructed a road from Detroit to Chicago, which answered as a mail route. This passed through Quincy, Coldwater and Bronson, and is now, as then, known as the Chicago road. North and south of this road trees were felled through the woods and the roads wound around marshes and over unbridged streams. The Indians yet wandered over a large part of the State. Excepting such small prairies as Coldwater, Bronson's, Allen's, etc., the Michigan lands were heavily timbered. These were cut down here and there, fine timber burned, and the land thus laid waste of its gigantic forests in order to make room for the rough, wooden plow, with steel point, and the ten yoke of oxen necessary to draw it through the unbroken soil and tough oak grubs. This breaking up of the soil brought malaria, and ague prevailed everywhere in the warm season. Sickness and death entered many homes. Amid such surroundings came Dr. and Mrs. Randall, in the full vigor of life and health, with two children, a son Caleb D., and a daughter Abby. There was no other physician within two miles of Bronson and the first medicine Dr. Randall sold was quinine for some of Bishop Chase's family. (The son, C. D. Randall, afterward married a grand niece of the Bishop.) He practiced day and night. The climate brought death into the household, taking the two daughters, Abby and Lydia, aged 13 and 16 years, within four weeks of each other. One of the elements which enter into the early life of a people to make it strong and noble and true, is that of religion. These people were both thoughtful and serious and were here in this pioneer world connected with the Methodist Church, which is so prompt to occupy new fields and keep the gospel lamp burning. The home of Dr. and Mrs. Randall always welcomed the circuit rider. When Peter Sabin and Mr. Lawrence (Methodist pioneer ministers) came on their circuit they were given the best the house afforded, and were shown up a ladder to a chamber where they slept, with just as much pleasure as we now take in showing our guests to the elegant spare rooms in our more modern and more pretentious residences. Meetings were held in log houses then and none were ever more thotoughly enjoyed than when "Father" Fisk* (father of President Fist, of Albion College, and of J. D. W. Fisk, of Coldwater) and Mr. McCarty would come, with their hearts all warm with love for their Savoir, and shout their amens and sing their praises to the Redeemer of mankind. In this life Dr. and Mrs. Randall took a deep interest as they did in every thing that interested their friends about them. The bible was to Mrs. Randall no strange book. She had read it many times and placed implicit faith in its doctrine. She was a constant reader, but the modern school of unbelief had no influence whatever to weaken her faith. Her lovely christian character and loving attachment to her friends endeared her to all who knew her. The life of Mrs. Randall was like that of many of our pioneer women. There were perhaps no individual deeds that attracted the world's attention; but there are many heroes and heroines in private life whose deeds of love and bravery the world may never know. There was in this home, domestic labor, self denial, self sacrifice and loving assistance for family and neighborhood. Home duties and kindly aid to the sick and dying and tender sympathy in affliction were every day incidents in this pioneer life. While the conveniences and comforts of the eastern home were left behind, the pioneer mother, neighbor, friend and Christian found enough ways to cheer and comfort and improve. Even to old age Mrs. Randall always loved the companionship of the young and helped to make life happy for them. Like many another who passed through the early scenes, the hardships, privations, afflictions, toils, she retained her strength of mind and her happy and cheerful spirit and has left them behind as a rich legacy to those that now reverently and sadly mourn her death. --END-- File at: http://files.usgwarchives.net/mi/branch/obits/r/randall16831nob.txt This file has been created by a form at http://www.genrecords.net/mifiles/ File size: 9.5 Kb